Framework Conditions in Estonia

Estonia hast the highest gender pay gap in the Eu with currently 26.9 per cent despite the fact that both the share of women in the labour market and working full-time are relatively high comparing to other European countries.

Two main reasons for the large wage gap can be identified:

- the Estonian labour market is both vertically and horizontally segregated. Significant income differences between the the sectors can be shown.

- women tend to break their careers for a relatively long period of time due to a lack of daycare facilities for children and a rather inflexible parental leave benefit system.[1]

National Action Plan to Reduce the Gender Pay Gap

In 2012, the Estonian government has adopted an action plan to reduce the gender pay gap. This action plan acknowledges that reducing the gender pay gap is a complex issues and the gender pay gap needs to be tackled from different perspectives simultaneously. The action plan includes the following aspects:

1) improving the implementation of the existing Gender Equality Act (e.g. improvement of the collection of statistics, awareness raising, support of the work of the Gender Equality and Equal Treatment Commissioner etc.),

2) improving the family, work and private life reconciliation;

3) promoting gender mainstreaming, especially in the field of education;

4) reducing the gender segregation; and finally,

5) analysing the organizational practices and pay systems in the public sector.[2]